Journey to the GORGE and back! Some of our memories from Ethiopia!

Well, the jet lag really hit me this trip.I was up again this morning at 4am. Last trip Robby and I didn't have ANY jet lag. Philip is fine too; just lucky me who can't sleep. At first I thought it was the adrenalin of everything that had just transpired, but now I am definitely blaming the jet lag and the 9 hour time difference! I will not be sleeping the first leg of the trip home next time. That is where I made the mistake! Lesson learned! :)

So, I shared our sweet son's photos and told y'all a little about his sweetness and his likes and dislikes. Now I want to show you his beautiful country.

The first full day we were there we went out into the countryside and saw the beauty of Ethiopia!
Now, when Robby and I were there in July we were there during the Rainy Season and their Winter Season. The DRY Season is a totally different Ethiopia that we were able to see this time! It was BEAUTIFUL! The temps were 75 degrees with a constant breeze and sunny skies every day (it FELT like being on vacation on an island). The weather was perfect! It felt GREAT everyday! You needed a jacket early in the morning and at night, but the daytime temperatures were superb! It was so nice to see EVERYTHING DRY as well. No mud on this trip! We were slathered in it last trip! So glad I was able to see both season's in this beautiful country! As as side note Ethiopia gets ALL of their rain from July-September. The other 9 months it DOES NOT RAIN. Crazy, huh?

Early Sunday morning, we drove 2 hours outside of the city to a Gorge (A.k.a as Ethiopia's Grand Canyon! We passed all kinds of remote villages, kids who were shepherding cattle and goats, kids playing in the fields, people walking to church, people walking to visit their friends houses!
Here you saw more of the HUT type houses and it looked like what you think Africa looks like. There is a BIG difference from city life in Ethiopia and life in the countryside. They still do all of their farming with Oxen and a wooden plow and they walk really long distances to gather water. We passed a well today and saw children using it.

It was a gorgeous drive and we went with some new friends of ours, Lisa and Mike from Buffalo New York! The scenery was breathtaking on the way there and the Gorge was spectacular!


We finally got to see monkeys (Baboons)! I didn't get a ton of pictures or many up close because they scurried as soon as they saw us! So, look REAL close in these photos!:)

There was a magnificent waterfall at the Gorge and we hiked down to it.
There was also a REALLY old bridge that was gorgeous!

We had a few "local" guides give us the "tour" and of course we bought a few handmade items from them!
The rolling green hills and the river at the base of the gorge were spectacular.It reminded Philip and I of the beauty we felt when we were in Lake Tahoe. Breathtaking beauty!



There were aloe Vera plants growing everywhere and lots of other flowers and plants. Our Christmas poinsettias grow wild here in Ethiopia too. And they grow BIG! Like Poinsettia trees! :)


It was such a beautiful morning and we were blessed to have been able to journey 2 hours outside the city to see this beautiful site! Our driver and tour guide, Alazar, taught us sooo much aboout Ethiopian culture and the differences from Ethiopian city life versus rural countryside life!
We made the 2 hour journey back and left for the orphanage where our kids were! They were all eagerly waiting for us when we pulled in!(Despite the van running over and exploding one of their soccer balls!- No worries we replaced the next day with 3 new soccer balls!)

Especially happy to see us was this sweet face! :)
We donated tons of clothes and shoes to the orphange (a lot of the good quality stuff that was left over from our MEGA yardsale). Today each of the kids were bathed and dressed in new clothes and shoes! They came out one at a time (one nanny bathed and washed all 20 kiddos, so this happend over a few hours...) We all made a big deal when each child came out so clean and with their new duds on! Their little faces just lit up! It was so sweet and it felt so good that they were getting great use of all of YOUR donations!!! It truly put a smile on all of their sweet faces, and ours too!!! :)

Someone shared a clip with you on Vimeo

You can watch it here:
http://vimeo.com/16182115

Gina & Philip_Stewardship 2010 http://vimeo.com/16182115 (Scroll to the bottom right hand corner of the blog to mute the music player.) This is our video that talks about how we knew we were supposed to adopt and how we picked our son's birth country of Ethiopia.

Forward this email to your friends and family so that they can see it, too.

Don't want these alerts anymore?
http://vimeo.com/settings/notifications

LOVE,

Happy to be Home, but left part of our HEARTS in Ethiopia!

Well, we are back home! Man, that is a longer flight coming home. We clocked over 24 hours of travel time between the last 2 days! We only lost 3 bags this flight (I don't know what it is with our family and loosing luggage, but we are becoming quite the experts at this! LOL) 2 of the 3 lost bags were delivered tonight and the 3rd bag went to Texas (which has my laptop charger in it((Argh!!!)) Oh well, what do you do?

Overall the trip was FANTASTIC! You know it was a success and we have an email asking for our last payment to our Adoption Agency! Woo Hoo!So after this check is written this morning all we have left are our travel fee's for the next journey over and our Embassy fees!!!

WE PASSED COURT if you didn't already catch that in the last post! So, the way I understand it all (room for error- so there is my disclaimer), is that we NEED to get that stinking piece of paper back from Immigration with an Approval (it was entered into the system sometime last week, so we just wait that all of that gets approved.) Also, in the next few weeks our agency staff in Ethiopia will be obtaining his birth certificate, his passport, and submitting our case to the Embassy for review. After they approve everything, then we can book our travel for our return trip once a spot is available within our agency. More than likely, it looks like our travel time will be in January, IF all continues to move along smoothly.


That seems like a REALLY long time to us, that was until we talked to people that we met in Ethiopia that have been wrapped in their adoption process for years (NOT with our agency)...

Literally YEARS... I can't even imagine!

We met another couple who went to travel for their court date like we did (also NOT with our agency) and they found out when they got there that there was a problem with the paperwork; they were planning on staying in country until the adoption was complete, and are now staring at a March 2011 timeframe. And they are staying in country until then! Wow, ok, no more whining from me. BUT we desperately MISS our little guy!


We are just praying so hard that God will protect his heart. We are here with so many distractions(like getting his room ready, preparing for the holdiays, running our kids around everywhere and living life, etc)and he just WAITS in the orphange for us to come back and get him. Man, I hope he really BELIEVES we are coming! We LOVED the orphanage where he is staying (as much as you can love an orphange) and all the people and the kids there, BUT it is really so hard when he tells the orphange director that he doesn't want us to go and that he wants to go with us. And SOMEHOW you have to walk away and trust that is really WILL all happen. We definitely left a LARGE chunk of our hearts in Ethiopia. It was all we could really leave with him and we pray he doesn'f forget our promise to come back for him. It was a VERY emotional plane ride, half way around the world yesterday, for both of us, actually probably for all 3 of us. (Here come the tears again...) We already miss him so!!!

Look at this sweet face-- how do you NOT fall in LOVE with him instantly?

He just has the sweetest heart, and the sweetest smile, and the sweetest ooh's and ahhh's.... We miss that so much already. He has the sweetest baby boy voice, and is overcome with emotion and lights up like a Christmas tree when he sees his Daddy!


He picked out jeans to wear the last day we were there because he wanted pants like his daddy's! :) He pees more than anyone we have ever met (14 stairs one way, everytime he needs to go!) He knows to push up his sleeves and wash his hands afterwards without even being prompted. He LOVES to brush his teeth-- can't rememeber that last time I saw anyone that EXCITED about a toothbrush and toothpaste (Thanks Lily!)
He loves to talk about cars and dogs (makeeena's and woo-sha's). He LOVED looking at his pictures and reciting who was who in his picture book! While we were in court, he took the nanny to our room to show her his things. He showed her his toys, his blanket, his pajamas, his sippy cup, and his photo album. She said he was so sweet, and wanted to show her his mommy, his daddy, his brother, his sister and his doggies! The staff just fell in love with him- almost as much as we did! :)



His english was very limited, but by the end of the week we had made HUGE strides! We had learned some Amharic and he had learned a lot of English! He got lots of practice counting to 14 (remember those 14 steps to our bathroom?-LOL) He could say Robby and Caitlin's names and he pretty much was copying everything we said! "You are so silly" was one of my favorites!!!

He loved taking a bath and playing with his tub toys and getting the lotion and oil rub down aftewards!

He LOVES pajamas, his underwear, and socks, and shoes. All the things that we take for granted here in America were such a BIG deal!!! He kept ALL of his stuff stashed in his backpack and he carried it around with him EVERYWHERE around the guesthome!

We joked thinking he would try to sleep with his backpack in his bed! (It rested next to his bed,and was the first thing he checked on each morning he woke up to make sure it was still there!) He is a REALLY good sleeper (10-11 hours each night!)

He LOVES injeria, pizza, pasta, grilled cheese, frenchfries, eggs, peanut butter crackers,egg and cheese crossiants, bananna's, tea and Mirandas. Ok, he had a taste of a SNICKERS bar too. :)

The "what he will eat part once he gets home" should be easy!! Yay! I was a little worried about that!

He loves his teddy bear too (his baby!)

His "baby" loves to kiss and was kept warm by his blanket during the day! He loves to color, watch Thomas the Train, look at his view finder,play with his makena's (cars) and play with playdough! Hours among hours of play and fun!



There are just so many things that I want to share with all of you, but these are just a few memories that stand out with the little sleep that I have had in the last few days! Man, I can't wait to be more tired than this when we make that trek back home with him! I know that kind of travel with a toddler doesn't sound like fun, but we would jump on a plane tomorrow to go get him and bring him home forever!!!

Thanks to all of your prayers!! Thanks for all of your support!!

If you would continue to pray that the rest of our process moves swiftly, then we would be forever greatful!!

We know GOD has had his hand in this adoption from the beginning, so we are leaning on his strength and his timing of bringing this little boy into our home forever!

Love you bunhces little Mamo and we are praying sooo hard that you will be with us VERY soon...and FOREVER!!!! You are already part of this family and it is soo hard to be away from you!!! We will be there soon!

Love,
Mommy & Daddy!

HE IS OUR SON!!!!

Today an Ethiopian judge confirmed what we felt like God has been telling us all all along! She said the 3 sweetest little words we have ever heard in Ethiopia.... She said "HE'S YOUR SON!"!!!

WE PASSED court and today we became a FAMILY of 5! So happy to finally show his SWEET face to all of you!!! :) Meet our youngest son who became ours November 10th, 2010! :)

We were also able to see and hug Mamo's Dad today and say our goodbye's. He said that we answered a prayer that he had been praying to God for one year. He has been praying for Mamo to have a better life and to be cared for. He was unable to do so.

Welcome to our family meet Daniel Mamo Payne! We celebrated today with lunch - Grilled cheese, club sandwiches,f rench fries with Ketchup and Mirandas (a.k.a. as Orange Crush) that Daddy went and picked up from a local French Bakery! Mamo loved the grilled cheese, french fries and ketchup! :)

We are hanging out the rest of the day playing with Play-Doh (funniest thing ever really! Lots of ooh"s and ahhh's! So sweet! We willl catch up on the days in between when we get back! There is so much going on and it takes me too long to blog! I want to spend every minute with this sweet heart! We are heading home tomorrow night, so we dont have much longer to memorize everything about him! Our new prayer is that we get to come back VERY soon to bring him home-- we begin the next steps of the process! Prayfully 6-8 weeks he will be home with us FOREVER!!! Hugs and Kisses Robby and Caitlin- we love you- we miss you and your brother has been showing all the nannies your pictures! He tells everyone that you are his brother and sister!! See you soon!

Love to all!

Arrivied in Ethiopia!!! Day 1

Hello, this is Meghan, Gina's friend, and I am adding the blogs for her. She can not blog in Ethiopia so she is sending me the entries and I am adding them for her. I am new at this so please bear with me.

From Gina and Philip:



The plane ride to Ethiopia was not that bad, but we got very little sleep! When we landed Philip totally started bottoming out so we came back to the guest home for him to take a nap! I met several other families staying here and they are truly all so nice! I was able to get us all unpacked and then we headed out to go see Mamo! :)

We didnt really know WHAT to expect when we got there! I didnt know if he would at all remember me from the first time. He saw us get out of the bus and he looked up immediately and smiled. He then came over and hugged me with the BIGGEST hug I have ever had. I am talking a " I am never letting go of you" kind of hug! Tihitinna, his orphange director, said he had been waiting for us!!! :) He is so stinking cute! He met Philip for the first time and they were both smitten with each other! I have some great pictures of everything and hope to show everyone on Wednedsay after court!!! Here is one pic to share-- Mamo wasnt looking at the camera so here is a sneak shot of him meeting his daddy! :)



We stayed at the orphange and played with him and all of the other kids! Many of them remembered me from the trip in July! Tsemegen came right over to us Robby and started swinging an air baseball bat-- I think he was looking for you!! :) He said he remebered us! Wendi and Beth-- Your kids are all doing GREAT and they are all so precious! We will be loving on them for ya! Shari and Kelly- we will be loving on yours too! So happy to love on your kids while we are here too and to tell them that you are all coming soon! :)

We left the orphange after a lot of play and we went to eat with a group of new friends from our guest home! We had brick oven pizza and it was delish! We will defintiley be going back to that restaurant while we are here! ( At least for take out!)

The location of where our guest home is wonderful! We are in walking distance to a Kaldis (local Starbucks), and grocery and many shops (aka Mall), just 2 blocks over!
Heading to Kaldi's in the morning for breakfast! :) A tall Carmel Machiaatos here is 25 birr, which is about a $1.50 US.

We need some sleep in the worst way, but so happy we got to see/meet our little guy and love on him for a bit! Hopefully we will bring him back tomorrow to the guest house with us! :)

Please keep praying for our court date which is Wednesday and that little Mamo's heart is open to receiving us! :)

Robby and Caitlin - we love you and miss you!!! Mamo loved seeing pictures of you!!!

Blessings!
Philip and Gina

Too excited to sleep last night! :)

Well, we made it to our first stop (Dulles)and we are hanging out, thinking we should get some sleep, but who can sleep? OK, the Overwhlemedness has left and EXCITEMENT is settling in!!! Woo HOO! Let's get this show on the road!

So yesterday, we sported our family adoption t-shirts to the airport and had the chance to meet a lady who is starting a children's home in India, another couple who was going to a child center in India to love on some orphans(not related to the first lady),a cool guy named Tom Davis who was heading to the Orphan Summit meeting, who has a ministry called Childrens HopeChest! They work with orphans all over the world. Check it out at www.hopechest.org
We talked to so many people about what our shirts meant, where we were adopting from and were congratulated over and over. Kind of like being REALLY pregnant (7mmonths or so)...people were just attracted to comment on our "situation!" Today we are suiting up in our 147 Million Orphan Gear, so we hope to continue to advocate for those without a voice thru our shirts! People just want to look at you and they SMILE! :) I have never talked to so many people on an airplane ride and a trip to the airport!

So, I left all my makeup in Nashville. Argh! I realized that last night at the hotel! Oh well,what cha gonna do? ( that is besides buy some really over priced stuff at the airport if they have anything this am!)Ha ha ha!

Well, look like next post is from Ethiopia!!! :) Talk to ya from the other side of the world in a bit!
Blessings!
Philip and Gina

Leaving in a few hours to start our Journey To Ethiopia!!!

WHEW! No lie, but this is the FIRST opportunity that I have had over in a week to blog. There are so many emotions to acknowledge, too many people to recognize for their help, and I am sure we over packed! Thanks to everyone for your help to make this trip become a reality! I will say it again...OUR VILLAGE IS THE BEST VILLAGE EVER!!!! Lots of help came into play to afford us the opportunity to leave for the next 10 days! THANK YOU ALL!!!!!!

We have 4 bags packed to the brim- most registering 48-49 LBS on our scale (max is 50)! Cutting it a little close, we think! We are talking over 2 HUGE bags of donations filled with shoes, clothing, and diapers for our son's orphanage! Philip kept asking what we could take out, but my answer was, honey- they NEED that there! It's ALL going!!! NEED there is different than our desire here... I can't wait for him to understand what I am talking about when I say that! Soon enough, he will see! :)

We have our clothes packed, as well as little Daniel's! Looks like when we get there that we may be able to go and get him and bring him back with us to our guest home where we are staying! YA HOO!!!!!So with that news, we packed a whole lot of clothes for him ( 3T-5)- we don't know what size he is, so we will just pray something fits him! If not, mama is going shopping in ET, but I am really praying SOMETHING will fit! :) We also loaded up on things to "entertain" him and help him bond with us. Crayons, coloring books, playdough, Mr Potato head, makenas (cars)etc... We just can't wait! Makena is one of like 3 Amharic words I remember! :) I set off the alrams at the airport on the way back to the States... I still had makena's shoved in my pocket! :) Whatever you do, do not throw any makena's away! The kids LOVE them there!!! They go nuts when you hand them out! I remember my little guy after he got his new clothes and 2 makena's--He was ALL SMILES!!! Do you remember Kate,Nick and Rachel? I have a picture of him, standing there just BEAMING! :) Oh, I love that memory and it wasn't that long ago!
















It's so hard to leave our 2 amazing and GORGEOUS/HANDSOME looking kids at home while we fly half way around the world to meet their brother! Robby and Caitlin--- We LOVE you sooo much and are so PROUD of you! We are missing you already and you have a GREAT time with all the grandparents! We are thinking of you EVERY day! We are praying for you to be happy and to know that we love you! We are bringing this little boy into our fold so there will be MORE love in our home! We will tell Daniel Mamo ALL about you! I know he can't wait to meet you!!! Hugs and Kisses!!!Have great days at school and we will be home soon! (Give the babies some extra kisses too for us!)

We leave today for Washington ( in just a few hours) and we stay the night! We head back to the airport for a 930am flight (830 Nashville time!) We land in Ethiopia Saturday at 8:30 am( 12:30pm Nashville time)( I think I figured that right))! Prayfully, we will be able to sleep on the flight, cause it's gonna be a LONG day if we don't! Hello, Mr. Lunesta! :) Our flight time( and time on the runway in Rome) is 16 hours total! We hope we get a window seat, so we can look out over the Sahara as we fly over! It was so awesome to see! I kept looking for a pyramid when we flew over Egypt, but no such luck! LOL So crazy, how far away we will be, yet so close to call via phone! We are going to TRY our best to Blog! :) I have the remote setting set up, so I should be able to access this trip ( that is IF we can get an Internet connection!)

So, how am I feeling? EXHAUSTED, that's how! I have been so busy organzing the details here at home of how life exists in our absence for the kids, packing, cleaning, going to wrestling matches, carpooling, working, etc.. that I haven't even really had time to process yet, that the most AMAZING little guy in the world is going to be in my arms in a few days! Can you believe it? I just met him July 20th and now we are journeying back to make him part of our FOREVER family. Wow, God's plan is unfolding so rapidly and we are so blessed to follow his desire!

Will You please begin to pray with us that he officially becomes a Payne on November 10th? Prayer warriors... start praying now Please! Pray especially hard on the 9th ( we are 8 hours ahead of you!) Our court date is scheduled for November 10th!

We are also praying that we get to meet his dad and have an exchange with him to learn more about Mamo's past. I pray he wants to keep a relationship with him and hope he has a chance to say goodbye to his father, who took care of him and provided for him for so long. I am sure it will be a very emotional day for all of us, but we desire so much to meet him and learn of his story, so that we may be able to tell Daniel Mamo about it some day. Please say a special prayer that his father will have peace with his decision for us to raise his son. Man, that is hard to type. I can only imagine.

Adoption is beautiful, but there is so much loss as the same time. Loss of family, loss of country, loss of heritage for this precious little boy. Our intentions are to keep his identity STRONG in his Ethiopian heritage, and are so thankful for the LARGE Ethiopian support community that is here in our backyard! Ethiopia is such a beautiful and amazing place, and mark my words right now....This will NOT be the last trip for our family to this beautiful country. This country is ALREADY in my blood, and we will continue visit this AMAZING place! God didn't send us all the way here to just save one child. I think he sent us to save ourselves. More on that in the future! ( I can't write more here because we are not sure what the future holds for us here, but I know it is something special!) :)

I cant wait to see where we are staying! I cant wait to see Philip's freaked out face (I will blog about this later) when he lands here! I cant wait to smell Ethiopia again! I cant wait to hug the necks of my Ethiopian friends! I cant wait to see my baby! I cant wait for Philip to meet him! I cant wait to fall madly in LOVE with this little guy all over again! I cant wait to tell him about his new family and his new friends! I cant wait to eat Ethiopian food (and my peanut butter and crackers!) I CANT WAIT! Just a little while longer! :) Almost there! and already there in my heart....Actually, Not sure I really ever left! :)

Blessings to all! Stay tuned for more updates!!! :)

Here we come little guy!!! :) Mama and daddy are leaving RIGHT now!!